We’ve finally reached the final character in this little series – the Watcher. She has a very aggressive playstyle since she can deal double (or even triple) damage to enemies. Widely considered to be the most overpowered character in the game, this monk changes her stances and takes down enemies in record time. If you are by any chance new to the game, check out our Slay the Spire beginners guide for the basic overview of the game.
Interestingly, the Watcher wasn’t a playable character when the game was first released. She was added at a later date. As a result, her strength doesn’t rely on any of the key mechanics in the game (attacks/skills/powers). Instead, she combines all of these to deal massive damage.
Slay the Spire Watcher Builds Overview
We’ve gone over the best builds of all other characters: Ironclad, The Silent, and Defect, and it’s the Watcher’s turn. The Watcher has multiple viable builds, including the “Stance Dance”, Divinity, and Infinite. In this guide, we’ll go over these builds in detail and add a few more in the end.
Stance Dance Build
This is the “basic” Watcher build. The goal is to utilize her main mechanic by changing stances multiple times per turn, gaining energy, and dealing double damage to enemies before returning to Calm. Let’s quickly go over the stances before we continue:
Wrath – In this stance, the Watcher deals and takes double damage. Wrath is a huge enabler for this character, but it comes at a steep cost. It’s important to plan ahead so you don’t accidentally end your turn in Wrath, since it could mean instant death.
Calm – When you exit Calm, you gain 2 energy.
Divinity – When you enter Divinity, you gain energy and deal TRIPLE damage. We’ll talk more about Divinity later, and it’s not really relevant in a stance dance deck.
Key Cards
To create a Stance Dance build is actually really simple – in some ways, you already start with one. But to truly enable switching in-and-out of stances multiple times per turn, you’ll need draw. Rushdown is an insta-pick for this deck. You can also include Empty Mind, just be mindful of your energy. Naturally, you need at least 1 way to enter Wrath, and ideally a 1-cost card to enter Calm, like Inner Peace.
Other cards that fit well are Mental Fortress, Talk to the Hand, and Meditate for deck manipulation.
Synergistic Relics
Violet Lotus is a great pickup in a Stance Dance build since it gives you even more energy when you exit Calm, which can enable you to create broken combos. Teardrop Locket can also work really well. It makes you start every combat in Calm, which means that you can get your combo going as soon as turn one.
In general, this build isn’t really relic-dependent, so you don’t have to sweat finding any particular one to make it work.
Divinity Build
Making a Divinity build work is really fun and enables you to deal massive damage to enemies. As mentioned, you deal triple damage in the Divinity stance, and you enter Divinity when you gain 10 Mantra. There are numerous ways to obtain Mantra, so let’s get into it.
Key Cards
First, let’s talk about cards that increase your Mantra. Devotion is a power that grants you Mantra every turn and it’s a nice inclusion in most decks. It can be slow, but it works well against bosses and it’s a great target for Omniscience.
Other cards that gain Mantra are PrayProstrate, and Worship. Worship, in particular, is almost a must-have for this build. It’s also a great target for Omniscience since it enables you to enter Divinity on the same turn.
Finally, other cards that synergize well in this build are Wallop, Sands of Time, and Wheel Kick. Brilliance is also a top-pick since it directly scales with Mantra.
Finally, make sure to add enough block to prevent taking too much damage until you stack enough Mantra.
Synergistic Relics
When it comes to relics, Damaru is the only one that directly affects your build since it gives you 1 Mantra per turn. Although it’s too slow by itself, it’s great in addition to other enablers we’ve mentioned. Other than that, relics that give you draw, energy, and increase your strength work well here.
For example, Pen Nib doubles the damage of every tenth attack you play. If you can finesse it, you can deal an insane amount of damage with just 1 attack if you’re in the Divinity stance.
Snecko Eye can also potentially be a great pick up, since it randomizes the cost of every card in your hand. A lot of high-damage attacks also have a high energy cost, as do Omniscience and Worship – your top enablers for this build.
Infinite Build
Okay, remember how, due to RNG, you can’t really start a run and force a build in this game? That’s mostly true, except for one little exception – the Watcher infinite. Now, obviously you won’t get it working 100% of the time, but in most scenarios – you can make this build happen before you reach the final boss.
Basically, if you get some of the key cards we’ll mention early enough, you could try to force card removal and cut down to just the enablers. If you’ve never had an infinite in this game, I highly recommend trying this one out, especially if you’re struggling with some in-game achievements. Let’s see how it’s done.
Key Cards
So the base of the Watcher Infinite build is:
- One reusable 1-cost way of entering Wrath. Usually this is an upgraded Eruption since it’s part of your starting deck. Other options are Tantrum and Indignation.
- One reusable 1-cost way of entering Calm. The best card here is Fear no Evil, but you can also use Inner Peace.
- Rushdown. You can’t make the build happen without this card so prioritize finding it.
To set up a true infinite on turn one, you need to prioritize removal. Ideally you want your deck to be down to 5 cards total, so hit plenty of shops and question marks. If you can’t remove all cards, look for a Scrawl to help you set up the build.
Synergistic Relics
Surprisingly, you don’t need any particular relic to truly make this build work. Probably the best one you can get is Peace Pipe, which allows you to remove cards at rest stops. Another great pick up is Violet Lotus which gives you extra energy when you exit Calm.
Runic Pyramid prevents you from discarding your hand at the end of the turn. It’s great if you can’t cut down your deck to just 5 cars for a turn one infinite. It gives you flexibility to set up the turn you need.
Pro tip #1: Beating the Time Eater and the Corrupt Heart
These two bosses counter all infinite builds, no matter which character you’re playing. The Time Eater prevents you from playing more than 12 cards per turn, while the Heart has a cap on how much damage it can take per turn (it also damages you whenever you play a card). Luckily, encountering these bosses doesn’t have to be a run-ender.
The key to persevering against these bosses is block. Always include a Mental Fortress or, if you can’t find it, a Talk to the Hand to generate enough block to survive turns when your infinite is disrupted. Feel free to add either of these cards to your infinite build, no matter which boss you’re facing.
Other Builds
Now that we’ve discussed the most common Watcher builds, let’s see how to make niche ones work. Of course, these can be as powerful as the ones we mentioned above, if you can pull them off correctly. Let’s see how it’s done.
Alpha
An Alpha build relies on playing Alpha, then Beta, and finally Omega to deal 50 damage to all enemies every turn. This build is great because it makes multi-enemy fights trivial, and provides consistent damage against bosses. If you can manipulate your deck well enough, you can play Omniscience to pump those numbers up even more.
This build is simple to play, but enemies could end you before you set everything up. As a result, you need to add ways to generate block to survive the turns before Omega pops off. Sources of draw and Scry are also a must-take, like Third Eye and Evaluate.
Just be careful about your draw and energy situation. Drawing either Beta or Omega at the wrong moment can be devastating if you don’t have enough energy to play it.
Pros:
- Consistent damage output
- Low-maintenance after setup
- Simple and easy to play
Cons:
- Long setup makes you vulnerable to enemies
- High energy cost
- Limited synergy with other builds
Pressure Points
Slay the Spire players generally consider Pressure Points to be sort of underpowered, and I tend to agree. After all, it’s hard to make a build like this strong when you’re playing a character that can deal triple damage to enemies. However, Pressure Points can be really fun to play with and in some cases, could grant you victory.
In this deck, you’re going to want a lot of draw to get those Pressure Points whipping around as much as possible. Avoid over-cluttering your deck and prioritize removal. You also need to find ways to generate enough block while you stack up those Marks.
Pros:
- Offers decent, consistent scaling
- Bypasses weakness and low-strength
- Independent of relics and stance changes
Cons:
- Countered by enemies with Artifact
- Depends on drawing one card
- Scaling can be too slow against some enemies
Retain
Finally, let’s talk about the Retain mechanic. Retaining your cards means you don’t discard them at the end of your turn. In this build, you want to retain some cards until the perfect turn when you can take down enemies in one swoop.
The Establishment is a must-pick for this build, and prioritize upgrading it so you get it on turn one every fight. For damage, you can use Sands of Time, Windmill Strike, or even Battle Hymn to stack Smites in your hand.
For defense, add one or two Protects. Spirit Shield also works great in this deck.
Finally, to create the perfect turn, add either Crescendo to enter Wrath at the right time, or Blasphemy to enter Divinity. Just make sure you’re adding all the damage up correctly so you don’t accidentally ruin your run.
Pros:
- A lot of control of your turns
- Incredibly high burst damage on the turn of your choice
- Easy to play and set up
- Not that relic-dependent
Cons:
- Slow setup
- Requires scaling solutions
- Inconsistent blocking
Conclusion
We’ve finally reached the end of the road when it comes to character builds with the Watcher. In this article, we discussed the best Slay the Spire Watcher builds and how to make them happen. Whether you want to dance your way in and out of Wrath, deal triple damage to enemies in Divinity, or Pressure your enemies to defeat – we hope this little guide gave you some valuable information on how to do it.
Photo Credits: Mega Crit Games
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